Amazon to Offer Kindle e-Books On Cell Phones

Amazon is looking to expand its Kindle e-book range in the coming weeks according to the Associated Press. The Internet retailer is working on making to offer Kindle e-books "on a range of mobile phones" according to company spokesman Drew Herdener.

There is no word yet on which cell phones will be included in the initial offering.

Until now, Amazon users could only download and read e-books purchased on the site using a Kindle reader. A new version of the device was announced today during a press conference at New York's Morgan Library. Called the Kindle 2, the new device will be a slimmer version of the current device.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said the new device would be slimmer than most 3G smart phones. The new device will be .36 inches and weigh 10.2-ounces.

The updated Kindle will include new syncing technology that lets you start reading on one Kindle — including the first generation — and resume on Kindle 2. It has a crisper screen, Bezos says, up to two weeks of battery life on a single charge, and seven times greater storage capacity, or the equivalent of up to 1,500 books.

Kindle 2 can also read books aloud, and can charge its battery using a USB connection.

Another e-book provider, Mobipocket, which is owned by Amazon, already sells titles that can be read on numerous smart phones. And on Thursday, Google Inc. announced that titles available from its Book Search service can now be read on Apple Inc.'s iPhone or a phone running its Android operating system. For now that would just be the G1, which is sold by T-Mobile.

Amazon says it will begin shipping the new Kindle Feb. 24. Best-selling author Stephen King has written a novella, called "Ur", that will be exclusively available on the Kindle and will incorporate the device into the story.